Just walked the edge of the pond and noticed about 20 bark free cleaned sticks floating on the edges about 1-3’ in length. Not in a pile, just what looks to random sticks floating around. Obviously something is putting them there, I have never seen a muskrat, otter, or beaver swimming. Any advice?

Sounds like beaver. Sometimes they will cut down long stalks of weeds & grass, too, likely to cover possible den areas.

It’s only an acre pond, I don’t see any evidence of trying to block the overflow pipes. Also it’s been cold here I didn’t think beavers went to ponds, we are not near any major streams at all. I have no idea, jus worried about if something could cause a leak or eat the fish.

Could be a muskrat, I guess. Not familiar with them. I do have a beaver that acts very much as you describe. No major streams or creeks nearby, but somehow it found me.

At least if it's a beaver it won't eat your fish. You do have to watch out that it doesn't weaken your dam, though. Otters are really bad news for fish!

I'm going to say Muskrat.. Mostly due to your location and the "short sticks" with bark gone. We get an occasional Muskrat in trap nets and the areas we find them in usually have stuff similar to what you describe. Beaver tent to pull entire tree limbs out into the water and usually anything "green" not dead, maybe with leaves but generally quite large. a guess anyway..

Yes beaver will live in ponds. Look for holes around the pond just below the water line about the diameter of a grapefruit. Its possible the hole would be muddied up cloudy too. That would be muskrat.

Pictures of the branches

I still say Muskrat.. Beaver don't generally mess with stuff that small. The precision (:-)) at which the bark is removed is too "surgical" for a beaver.

Those bare sticks do not look like what my beaver does. He gnaws stuff down but does not strip off the bark so cleanly.

Just talked to the Conservation agent, basically said I don't know could be a beaver. I'll text you some pictures of trapper contacts..

Talked to a local trapper from the list. He says beaver. They want $359 to set traps. $100 per animal caught

You can trap them yourself. Not hard to learn. Can also shoot them but you get one shot.

IF it's a Beaver and catches one, he gets 459 bucks if he catches one...then another $$$$$ for selling the fur. My point is #1., make sure you visually SEE what he caught if anything and #2., It's not a beaver.. :-)

I can't afford to pay a guy $500 to catch a beaver....

I leave the beavers alone until they mess up and dig in the dam. They might take down a few saplings, I think they are part of the system.... leave them be til they mess up

Beavers around here do strip the bark off just like the pix

I am 100% positive that is a beaver. I caught about 18 (over the course of 3 years or so) in the stream right below my pond. they made dams every 75-100 yards. when the water backed up out of the stream banks, they kept adding sticks to form ponds. i never saw a stick any larger than 1.5" in diameter on any of their dams. i would use conibear 330 traps. beaver are really easy to catch. if you look around you will find his trails and slides. there is no need for any lure or bait. just put it in his path.
I killed 4 muskrats in 1 one week. i never saw a single stick they had gnawed on. i did see them swimming with grassy type vegetation in their mouth though.

All of this was at my old pond. I also caught and killed 6 otter there. here at my new house and pond so far only 1 beaver last year, 1 otter last year and 2 otters so far this year. I'd take a stick eater any day over an otter!

Found trees 1-3” in diameter chewed to triangles in the peninsula on the pond. It has a lot of overgrown saplings. I’ll post those pics in morning

Pondmeisters love "cute" otters the way Eskimos love "cute" polar bears.

From what I see in your pics I would say looks like what my beavers have left floating around my pond. Take a 6' pole and use it to check for holes below the water line at your dam. And set up some 330 conibar traps just below the waters surface at their slide into the water. Be careful and don't let your leg slide into the set trap. Work to the side of the trap.

I've never had a beaver problem until this year. Thus far the local semi-retired trapper has caught two. The first time he caught a beaver on the first day he set traps and the second time I called him he caught another beaver on the first day. They were chewing down small/medium size willow trees and other smaller type trees. The trapper said small twigs with bark chewed off is a good sign of beaver being present. I was happy to learn beavers dont eat fish. This last time a few weeks ago the beaver was living basically in big tree root system of a large tree that straddles the pond water. The trapper said usually the males will come up creeks from Lake Tawakoni...make a home....then head back out to find a female. I joked with my new wife that's kind of what i did....worked hard....got a house....then went out and found a female.

Here are the pics from last night, still nobody has seen this guy in at all and I don't see any beaver runs or back slides. We even had 1/2' of snow and don't see tracks in that.

I had beavers decimate about a 50'x50' area of cornstalks and drag them into the pond, as well as several trees around the pond so I knew it was beavers, and confirmed by "experts" .

Not surprised by the trees, but very surprised they would go after the cornstalks and they were about as stripped as the branches in your photos!

Sit out late in the evening and sometimes you will see them

This time of year they will start collecting edibles for winter...I have a few beavers that have been living at my pond since spring - I probably should venture down and see what they're up to lately


I would never pay someone to trap my pond, they should pay me or offer their service for free considering I'm supplying the game, they are benefiting from the fur.

I am lucky to have a retired neighbor who loves trapping since fur prices are in the dumpster right now. He has trapped 4 out of an area where they were clogging a culvert, but there is a smart one in my oldest pond that is proving difficult to trap. He will get it though, but not before it already wrecked some havoc...

Yep, that's when I saw mine.

Yeah, that's where I was pointed in my post..
And I digress, after seeing the pics of trees, It's a beaver.

**Update**

After three weeks of hunting this thing the beaver finally didn't outsmart us. It avoided the live trap and 330 body trap many times. However the beaver lure at Bass Pro worked (I was shocked), that beaver was so distracted she finally let her guard down enough.

She weighed in at 36lbs

They like to live in family groups of 6. 2 parents,2 last years litter and 2 of this years litter. Next spring they chase the old kits away. So do not stop with just one catch.

We have not seen more than 1 on trail cam and we had a Arlo camera on the pond watching for almost 3 weeks. Could this have been an outcast that was looking to setup a new place?

They mate for life, So if the male died then it could be,

Ya thats a big one. Good job.